White House's 'cute' social media post threatens to backfire in court: expert

The White House posted a screenshot of a story in The New York Times with an altered headline — and a claim that the original had been fixed.

Now a former federal prosecutor is cautioning that that action could cause the Donald Trump administration problems in court.

At issue is an immigrant whom the government admitted in court was wrongfully deported to El Salvador. The Maryland man, Kilmar Ábrego García, was sent to El Salvador in error, the government said.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the government must "facilitate" the return of García to the U.S. However, there was another hearing in a lower court in which the judge gave her definitions of "facilitate." That was challenged in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which also found that Trump's administration must bring García back, as CNN reported.

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The White House crafted the X post, changing the headline to claim García would never return.

The original headline, which referenced a meeting between Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen (MD) and García, read: "Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Maryland Man in El Salvador." The White House changed it to read "Senator Meets with Deported MS-13 Illegal Alien in El Salvador Who's Never Coming Back."

Former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance posted on X, "I suspect this is going to show up in a variety of court pleadings. Whoever thought this was cute at the time may be less giddy when this becomes evidence of intent to disobey a court order."

Multiple courts have found that García was deported without due process, and judges have insisted that the government must act to restore his rights.

So far, one judge is considering contempt charges against the administration, while another has indicated that she's weighing contempt proceedings against the Trump administration, NBC News reported.

See the post here.